Continued and worse pain after fusion...

[Lineagebp]

I had a traumatic injury to my spine in 2006 while serving in the Air Force and it required surgery immediately. I had to have L5-S1 fused. I did not know it then but the fusion was to be a failure in many ways.

I continued my military career but was in so much pain I could not do my normal job as an engineer. I had to be behind a desk and even then I worked half days or couldnt even go in on some days. I am now retired at the age of 32, was 30 when I was actually retired by both social security and the military/va.

To fill in the gap between. My pain was bad before the surgery but 5 times worse after, not just right after but for the next two years. I could not sleep on my back because the pedical screws poked out about half an inch, you could see all four of them looking like little pencils trying to push out of my skin. My doctor kept saying the fusion was "perfect", my back is just "angry" at the procedure... crazy this guy made it through medical school talking to aerospace engineers as if they are children...

Anyway, 2 years went by and I finally said I could not do this anymore and sought a second opinion. The new doctor saw my current xrays/mri etc and the look on his face when he gave me the news still lingers in my memories. He said the fusion was a failure, the pedical screws were at such an extreme angle that nerve damage was most likey caused during or shortly after the surgery, he also said the screws were of the wrong size/type then the worst news of it all, my l5=l4 disc had noticably been damaged due to this first surgery... I needed a second fusion to take ALL the old equipment out and fuse s1-l4.

The pain is still here but the second fusion was a success as far as proper equipment and no further nerve damage occuring. My lower spine is stable now though the pain is bad enough that I take 24mg of hydromorphone daily along with some other meds for spasms, pain and associated problems.

Are there any people here that have stories similar to mine but are farther along and have healed? Just like anybdy in chronic pain I am sick of waking up to a shock of pain every day and living off of medicine.

Is there anything I can do to help the process or a new procedure that is out to have done? I need help more now than ever as my life may drastically change soon.

Thank you to whomever reads and for any advice.

[Lineagebp]

Just wanted to add that being retired at my age is not what I ever wanted.

I want to get back into the Air Force if that is possible and if not I would like to get into medical school to help people in pain. I have a wonderful pain specialist and people like him are so rare. He suffers from chronic pain himself so he can empathize. He is also very good at managing my medications, he switches my meds every few months to insure I dont get hooked on any one.

But in the end this is not the l want. I want to get active again and out and about.

The worst part is, while I am comfortable due to SSD and the military taking care of payment and medical needs, my career field is worth 100k+. I had to turn down 2 jobs because I cant physically do the work. Just hoping there is something I have not found yet that could help with getting rid of pain without medicine.